New commercial vehicle insurance provider launches

Pukka Insure, a brand new commercial vehicle insurance provider set to turn the world of van insurance on its ear, has recently launched.

Are you a van and truck driver that’s had a devil of a time getting commercial insurance for your vehicle? Well Pukka Insure says it’s got a deal for you. Or it will, sometime soon. The new player on the insurance field says that right now it’s offering drivers of 3.5-tonne vehicles a policy that should be something you might be interested in, though the company has remarked that it will be expanding to a full weight range eventually.

Of course, the founder of this new company, Sam White, isn’t just someone that’s burst onto the scene from nowhere. She’s already involved in the insurance industry through the claims management company she founded – one that’s somehow survived the purge of CMCs that occurred a few years back when the Government changed the way personal injury legislation was handled in the UK.

Truth be told, the commercial van insurance sector could use some new blood. Motor vehicle insurance in general is just all kinds of terrible right now, with personal and commercial insurance rates rising steadily through the roof and into the stratosphere. More choices for beleaguered van and lorry drivers is fantastic, as more competition in the sector should – theoretically – act as a downward force on premium prices altogether.

The problem is that some of the forces driving insurance premiums up are external and not internal. Sure, there’s always the spectre of “cash-for-crash” scams driving costs up for insurers, but the insurance premium tax (IPT) went up to 9.5 per cent in November of 2015 – a hike of 3.5 percentage points – and that’s certainly adding to everyone’s pain.

Still, I suppose it remains to be seen if Pukka Insure is going to be able to make waves in the commercial insurance market or not. Personally I wish the new start-up all the best, but I’m certainly not going to be holding my breath to see if the rates this company offers – or the level of service, for that matter – are going to be anything worthwhile or noteworthy. For now, I’m just going to adopt a “wait-and-see” approach, though you’re welcome to switch insurers if you’re in the 3.5-tonne weight range I suppose. If you’re not, I’ll wager you’re going to wait right alongside me, aren’t you?

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